"The world annually consumes more than a million tons of chocolate - "the food of the gods," as the ancient Mayas called it. Native to tropical America, cacao trees have been cultivated for more than 1,000 years, their beans being used for beverages, as currency, and for regional trade. In the late sixteenth century the Spanish brought the delectable secret of the cacao tree back to Europe. Ever since, its seeds have fed the world's insatiable appetite for chocolate. The Chocolate Tree chronicles the natural and cultural history of Theobroma cacao and explores its ecological niche. Tracing cacao's "journey" out of the rain forest, into pre-Columbian gardens, and then onto plantations adjacent to rain forests, Allen M. Young describes the production of this essential crop, explaining how the seeds are extracted from the large, colorful pods. He details the environmental price of Europeanized cultivation, and ways that current reclamation efforts for New World rain forests can improve the natural ecology of the cacao tree. Recounting more than a dozen years of ecological fieldwork in and around cacao plantations in Costa Rica, Young reviews his research into the problem of poor levels of natural pollination on plantations. He recalls encounters with sloths, toucans, butterflies, giant tarantula hawk wasps, and other creatures found in cacao groves. Among these creatures Young discovered a tiny fly that provides a vital link between the chocolate tree and its original rain forest habitat. This discovery leads him to conclude that cacao trees in cultivation today may have lost their original insect pollinators due to the plant's long history of agricultural manipulation. The Chocolate Tree is a rich concoction of cultural and natural history, archaeological evidence, botanical research, environmental activism, and lush descriptions of a contemporary adventurer's encounters with tropical wonders. With a wealth of illustrations, this book offers an appreciation of the plant and the environment that provides us with "the food of the gods." -- Dust Jacket.
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